Second Chance
by Stretch1
Summary: What happens when a certain newsie faces the prospect of death.


Hey-lo,   
Here is the fic I had the idea for. Well, I didnt know exactly   
whose story it was going to be until I was halfway finished writing   
it. But, here it is. 

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As I walked up the stairs of that old platform, with the wood   
rotting through and cracks threatening the end of the side posts, I   
could think of nothing else but what I would never see. I would   
never marry, nor have children to call my own. My damn necessities   
got in the way of that. It's ironic how my desire to survive was   
what was going to be the death of me.   
  
I was never privileged. Any one of my friends could tell you that.   
Yes, I have friends. People usually think of criminals as loners,   
except if they are the leaders in some gang. I see them now,   
standing before me. Racetrack was crossing himself and the nuns I   
had gotten used to seeing everyday were in a silent prayer, holding   
their rosaries as if Hell was about to consume me. All I did was   
steal money for food, and now I am seen as a demon of this world.   
  
My steps have gotten heavy. I didn't even realize I was walking   
until I hit my destination. The post stood there, a piece of rope   
handing there, moving slightly in the wind. As peaceful as it   
looked, it also looked cruel and sinister. This insignificant object   
was to be my demise, my death.   
  
My death. It's just two small words, and yet they held so much fear   
and uncertainty for what was ahead. Did I deserve this? Was this the   
price to pay for the desire to survive? Life was unfair. Well, I   
didn't have much more time to dispute this fact, seeing as my life   
was about to be over.   
  
There was Sarah. Don't cry, Sarah. I wanted to scream that it would   
be alright. Les, close your eyes. It will be over soon, just close   
your eyes. I scanned my eyes further and caught sight of my parents.   
Mama, standing there, handkerchief in hand and her eyes welling up   
with tears of sorrow and lost. I wasn't even gone yet. What would   
she do after she was left with only two children to care for. And,   
there was Papa. Expressionless, yet he had a sadness in his eyes   
that was beyond words. I'm sorry Papa, I just wanted to help. I   
didn't mean for this to happen, honest.   
  
I looked up to the sky above, an illuminating blue with the most   
beautiful clouds I had ever seen. Were the heavens celebrating? I   
looked once again to my friends and family, and sent up a prayer of   
my own. Instead, it wasn't for God to save me, it was for Him to   
watch over the ones I loved. To let them never have to be so hungry   
because the unions failed that they were forced to what I had done. A  
  
As I closed my eyes to wait for the inevitable, I felt my body   
shake, and suddenly jolt downward. It had happed, I was dead, and   
yet, I didn't feel different. I then realized I was on my knees, and   
a shock of pain was shooting through my shins. Still feeling the   
rope around my neck, I opened my eyes to see the crowd that had   
gathered to witness my death in an all-encompassing shock. Looking   
down, I saw I was on the ground, and above me was the platform I had   
once been standing on, the trap door opened where my body should be   
handing. I then saw it, the post I had once been attached to…along   
with the beginning half of the rope that was still tied around my   
neck. Suddenly, the irony wasn't in the rope or the sky, it was in   
the law. What had placed me here was also my salvation, because I   
knew that it was against the law to hang a man twice. If the rope   
were to snap, he was from that moment forward a free man.   
  
Mama and Sarah were still crying, but instead they were tears of   
happiness. Les was wide-eyes, and Papa stood there, his eyes now   
filled with such happiness I had never seen in my life. My friends   
were cheering as if they had won another war, and the nuns once   
again crossed themselves, no doubt believing this to be an instance   
of divine intervention. It then truly hit me: I was going to be able   
to see the things I had thought impossible only a moment before. I,   
David Jacobs, was given another chance.   
  
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Well, hope you like my little venture into one-shot morbid land.   
  
Stretch  



End file.
